Chapter 3
Colonies Take Root
Section 1
The First English Settlements
England Seeks Colonies
 In the late 1500s, England began to establish colonies in
North America
 to provide markets for English products
 to get important raw materials
 The first two colonies on Roanoke Island failed.
 1585: Abandoned a year later
 1587: vanished without a trace
Founding Jamestown
 1607: Virginia Company of London founds Jamestown on
Chesapeake Bay.
 First permanent English settlement
Founding Jamestown
 Many colonists spent their time looking for gold instead
of doing work.
 Not enough food for the winter
 By 1608, only 38 colonists were still alive
Founding Jamestown
 1608: John Smith takes charge and draws up tough new
rules.
 Most important rule “he who works not, eats not.”
 Conditions improved
Founding Jamestown
 1609: John Smith is injured and returns to England
 Conditions worsened.
Founding Jamestown
 Winter 1609–1610: The “starving time”
 Powhatan refuses to supply colonists with food
 By spring of 1610: only 60 colonists are still alive
Jamestown Prospers
 1612: Colonists planted tobacco, a crop native to the
Americas
 Tobacco was a source of income.
 By the 1620s, farmers were selling all the tobacco
they could grow.
Jamestown Prospers
 1619: The House of Burgesses meets for the first time.
 Marked the start of representative government in North
America
Jamestown Prospers
 Summer of 1619: Dutch ship arrived in Virginia from
West Indies
 On board were 20 enslaved Africans
Plymouth Colony
 1607–1609: Several groups of English Separatists settled in
Holland
 to separate from the Church of England
 to practice religion in their own way
Plymouth Colony
 September 1620: One group of Separatists the Pilgrims,
left Holland and landed in Plymouth. Before going ashore,
41 adult Males sign the Mayflower Compact.
 It is the first document in which American colonists
claimed a right to govern themselves
Let’s Think:
 Why was the Mayflower Compact important?
Let’s Think:
 Why was the Mayflower Compact important?
 It was the first document in which Americans claimed
the right to self government.
Section 2
The New England Colonies
The New England Colonies
 Geography of New England:
 Thin, rocky soil made farming difficult.
 Just off the long, jagged coastline are some of the richest
fishing grounds in the world.
 The long winters and short, warm summers meant that the
colonists caught fewer diseases and lived longer than colonists
in Virginia.
Puritans in Massachusetts Bay
 Who They Were : People who wanted to reform, not
split from the Church of England
 Why They Left England: 1620s: King Charles I persecuted
them. They believed their way of life would provide an
example to others
Events
 1630s: 900 Puritans formed the Massachusetts Bay





Company
Led by John Winthrop, who was a respected
landowner and lawyer
Established Boston and other settlements
Elected an assembly known as the General Court
Only adult males of the Puritan Church could vote.
By 1634, 20,000 people lived in the Massachusetts Bay
Colony.
New Colonies
 Disagreements about religion led to new colonies.
 The Puritans did not believe in toleration.
 Roger Williams: Believed Puritans should split from the
Church of England and pay Native Americans for land.
Founded Providence, Rhode Island and decided that the
colony would have no established church.
Rhode Island
Roger Williams
New Colonies
 Anne Hutchinson: Questioned some Puritan teachings and
was expelled from Massachusetts. In 1642, she traveled
to New York State.
New Colonies
 Thomas Hooker: Disagreed with Puritan Leaders.
Founded Hartford, Connecticut. In 1639, colonists drew
up the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut.
Connecticut
Thomas Hooker
New Colonies
 John Wheelwright: Shared some of Hutchinson’s views.
Founded Exeter, New Hampshire. In 1680, New
Hampshire became a separate colony.
New Hampshire
John Wheelwright
Let's Think:
 How was New England's environment closely related to its
economy?
Let's Think:
 How was New England's environment closely related to its
economy?
 Forests products were used in shipbuilding. Also,
fishing and whaling were big industries.
Section 3
The Middle Colonies
Let’s Think:
 What conditions in the Middle Colonies favored farming?
Let’s Think:
 What conditions in the Middle Colonies favored farming?
 The climate was warm and the soil was fertile.
New York
 Began as a Dutch colony named New Netherland
 Economically successful because of farming and the fur trade.
 Swedish, French, Portuguese, and English settlers were hostile to




Dutch rule.
Tension between England and Holland because they were rivals at
trade
New Netherland separated England’s northern colonies from
its colonies farther south.
In 1664, King Charles II gave New Netherland to his brother
James, the Duke of York.
New Netherland became New York, and New Amsterdam
became New York City.
New Jersey
 Colony was established in 1665 when southern New York was
split off to form a new colony.
 New Jersey began as a proprietary colony, but in 1702, it
became a royal colony.
Pennsylvania
 Founder: William Penn
 Granted a charter from King Charles II in 1681
 Offered religious freedom to Quakers
 Penn’s “holy experiment”: to create a colony in which
people from different religious backgrounds could
live peacefully
 In 1682, Penn’s Frame of Government for Pennsylvania
granted the colony an elected assembly and freedom of
religion
 Economy:
 Called America’s breadbasket because it produced so much
wheat
 Diversity:
 Many settlers in the backcountry were Scotch-Irish (non-
English)
 Germans described themselves as Deutsch and became known as
the Pennsylvania Dutch
Delaware
 First European settlers were
Swedish.
 Penn’s charter included
Delaware, but Delaware
settlers did not want to send
delegates to a distant
assembly.
 In 1704, Delaware
became a separate
colony.
Section 4
The Southern Colonies
The Southern Colonies
 States south of the Mason-Dixon line included Maryland,
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and
Georgia.
 Geography: coastal area called the Tidewater
 Why the Mason-Dixon line became important: after the
American Revolution, it was the dividing line
between northern states where slavery was
abolished and southern states persisted
Let’s Think:
 What conditions favored the development of a plantation
economy?
Let’s Think:
 What conditions favored the development of a plantation
economy?
 The climate provided a long growing season that
farmers used to raise tobacco and rice. Both of these
crops required many workers in the field.
Virginia
 1640 to 1670: The number of settlers grew from 10,000 to




40,000
1607 to 1675: The number of Native Americans shrank from
8,000 to 2,000
Wealthy farmers bought most of the good farmland near the coast.
Poor colonists moved inland and fought Native Americans
over farmland
Bacon’s Rebellion: Nathaniel Bacon led an attack on Native
Americans and burned Jamestown. After Bacon died, the
governor hanged 23 followers, but did not stop settlers
from taking Native American lands
Maryland
 1632: George Calvert set up a
colony where Catholics could live
safely
 Tensions grew between Catholic
and Protestant settlers
 1649: Lord Baltimore helped pass
the Act of Toleration
 It welcomed all Christians and gave
all adult male Christians the
right to vote and hold office. It
was an important step toward
religious toleration in North
America.
Carolinas
 1663: Settlers from Virginia moved south beyond the
colonies borders and King Charles II granted a charter for a
new colony to be established there
 North Carolina grew slowly because it lacked harbors
and rivers for ships. Settlers produced tobacco and
lumber.
 South Carolina grew quickly. Settlers produced sugar and
rice, crops that depended on slave labor.
Georgia
 Founded because:
 England feared Spain was
expanding its Florida colony
northward.
 James Oglethorpe and other
wealthy Englishmen
wanted a colony that
would protect debtors
from imprisonment.
Change in the Southern Colonies
 1700s: The Southern Colonies developed two distinct ways of
life .
The Tidewater Region
 Economy dominated by plantations
 A society of slaveholders and enslaved.
 Divided wealthy people from poor people, who lived in
the backcountry.
The Backcountry
 Cut off from the coast by poor roads and long distance
 Women and girls worked the fields with men and
boys.
 People believed that the colonial government did not care
about them.
Section 5
Spanish Colonies on the Borderlands
Spanish Florida and St. Augustine
 Built in 1565
 Why Founded: Spain feared that France might take over the
area
 Why It’s Important: First permanent European
Settlement in the United States
 In 1693: To weaken English colonies, Spanish offered
protection and land to enslaved Africans who escaped to
Florida and helped defend the colony
Spanish Colonies on the Borderlands
 The borderlands began in the east with Florida . Farther
west, they included most of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona,
Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California.
New Mexico
 Why Founded: Juan de Oñate came
to New Mexico to do three things
find gold, convert Native
Americans, and establish a
permanent colony.
 Why It’s Important: Santa Fe
became the first permanent
settlement in the region.
 Oñate used Native Americans to
look after horses. When some
Native Americans ran away, they
spread the skill of horseback riding
from one Native American group to
another.
 1680: Native Americans drove out
the Spanish who did not return for
10 years
Spanish Missions Texas and Arizona:
 Father Eusebio Francisco Kino spread Catholicism and built
missions.
 The only early mission to take root in Texas was 150 miles
north of the Rio Grande and became the city of San
Antonio
Spanish Missions California coast:
 Spain began colonizing California in 1769.
 Missionary Junipero Serra led the effort. His first mission
eventually became the city of San Diego. Other missions
were in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
 Between 1769 and 1800: Spanish founded almost 20 missions
Life in Spanish Missions
Positive Aspects
Negative Aspects
 Native Americans
 Native Americans did
were not overworked.
 They worked 5-8
hours per day and 5-6
days per week and did
not work on Sundays or
holidays.
not have control over
their own lives
 Missionaries punished
them if they violated
mission rules
 The population fell
because of poor living
conditions.
Let's Think:
 Compare and contrast the experience of Native Americans in
Spanish settlements and in English colonies.
Let's Think:
 Compare and contrast the experience of Native Americans in
Spanish settlements and in English colonies.
 The Spanish made the Native Americans workers in
their colonies. The English pushed Native Americans
off their lands to build colonies.